chai spiced banana cake

It’s been a stupid and brilliant week. Lots of adventure, a bit of fun, some slothing and WAY too much feasting. I had a great weekend catching up with friends. On Saturday, we had an awesome 8 person party, with enough food for 30. Needless to say, I hit the snacks table a fair few times during the evening. We played beer pong, listened to good hip hop and laughed a whole lot. I had one laughing fit that lasted over half an hour. Work was pretty chilled in spite of being crazy busy and I finished the weekend up with Dodgeball and a quiet beer with some mates. Perfect.

Weekly food highlights:

  • I finally went to Cabramatta for the first time ever and I was blown away. So many exciting things to look at and the people were interesting.  I  ate a dry noodle dish with veggies for a measly $6.50. Hard to find a good meal that price anywhere in Sydney, really.
  •  I usually choose the noodle soup at Pho 236, Newtown. The other day, I had vermicelli with pieces of spring roll over the top. Perfection.
  • Chocolate covered liquorice. Enough said.
  • Corn chip sandwiches. Put Brie and some chutney between two big corn chips and you’re good to go.
  • Half price mussel night – $12 for a kilo of mussels and a big side of vegetables at The East Village Hotel, Balmain.
  • Halloumi burger at Dean’s Diner in Newtown. They have 27 burgers available on the menu and I plan to try every single one.

As you can see, there’s been a whole lot of eating out and not much home cooking. A friend recommended a Clean & Lean diet book, that I purchased on Friday. It suggests cutting out CRAP: caffeine, refined sugar, alcohol and processed foods. I agree with a lot of what I’m reading and what I most like is that it is straightforward and doesn’t come across as gimmicky. There is a 14 day ‘kickstart’ meal plan included in the book and I’ve decided I’m going to give it a go, just to get myself back into good eating habits. I’m not entirely comfortable with the amount of meat and eggs included in the plan but I can easily substitute ingredients. I’m looking forward to being more disciplined and active. I’m especially excited about cutting sugar out for a while – it’s so addictive and I know from previous experiences that I feel much better without it.

I’ll be starting my little 14 day clean eating journey once I use up the food I have in stock at home. This banana cake that I made for breakfast is pretty good and was easy to throw together. It is gluten free, sugar free and super soft, like sponge. I had it with almond butter, yoghurt, berry jam and coconut flakes.

Serves 8-10.

INGREDIENTS

3 ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs

1/4 cup buckwheat flour

3/4 cup hazelnut meal (you can use almond)

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground clove

1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger

1/4 tsp ground ginger

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180C.

Combine bananas and egg.

Mix all dry ingredients together, then stir through the wet mix.

Pour into a cake pan and bake for approximately 35-45 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack and serve.

(Adapted from Sweet Roots)

Category : baking, breakfast, cake, cakes & sweet things, gluten free
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